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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur admitted he has “a little bit” of nerves as he waits to see if his oldest son, Anthony, will be selected in the NHL Entry Draft today at Prudential Center.

“It’s for Anthony,” Brodeur said of his nerves. “I don’t want him to be disappointed. It’s something that I think every parent has to go through. My dad still goes through that stuff. He’s worked really hard to be in that position and it would be really nice for him to be picked up.”

Anthony Brodeur, who just finished his senior year at Shattuck-St. Mary’s Prep in Faribault, Minn, was not among 40 goaltenders ranked by NHL’s Central Scouting, so there’s no guarantee he will be picked today. If he does, it will probably be in the late rounds. If he isn’t selected today, he would be eligible again next year.

Martin Brodeur said they “haven’t talked to anybody” in terms of teams that might have indicated they were interested in taking Anthony.

“I know through the media you kind of read Montreal and Pittsburgh, who knows?” Brodeur said.

So, they really don’t have a clue if Anthony will be drafted today.

“Exactly,” Martin Brodeur said. “That’s the hardest part. If you had a clue, it would be easy now. Once again, it’s that disappointment I hope he’s not going to have. He worked so hard for it.”

All of Brodeur’s other children are also here at The Rock – sons William and Max and daughter Annabelle – other than 16-year-old son, Jeremy, who is at the Team USA under-17 camp. They will be sitting in a luxury box.

Martin Brodeur said Anthony asked him about his draft back in 1990 in Vancouver. The Devils traded back from 11th to 20th before selecting Brodeur with their first-round pick.

“I completely forgot about how everything works,” he said. “It brings good memories. This is the start of something. You get drafted. My father always told me the best thing. He said, ‘You’re a No. 1 pick. You become a number.’ It doesn’t matter what you did. It’s from now on how you impress the organization.

“That’s one of the things with the draft, just to put your foot somewhere. And from there it’s up to you to move on and get the ladder up and then try to achieve your goal.”

***Brodeur said he has concerns about the team’s possible ownership transition, but it’s about the perception of others from outside the organization that don’t know what’s going on internally.

“You have to be (concerned),” he said. “Not financially or anything, but the direction of the team. When you have stuff that’s up in the air, some of the articles -- I don’t know anything about what’s going on or who’s right or who’s wrong, but there’s still information out there about us having difficulties once again.

“You’re going through free agency. We’ve got our own guys to sign and you’re trying to help the team hopefully get some more and when you’ve got an organization that (appears) unstable, it’s kind of a tough thing. I don’t think it’s fair what happened in the media about our team and the owner because I think it might hurt us and it shouldn’t because everything will be fine eventually.

“Other teams had to go through the same thing. But it’s not a good thing.”

In other words, a free agent from another team might be unwilling to commit long-term to the Devils.

“You never know,” Brodeur said. “It’s one thing when you’re part of the family. I’m part of the family. I trust everything that’s going on. But somebody from the outside, you see two or three years it’s been chaotic all the time, what do you do? Already, it’s not like we’re a huge, attractive market for free agents. We’re not the Rangers. We’re not the Flyers. We’re not Montreal. We’re not Toronto. So, we need everything we can.

“I’m Lou is able to have conversations with them,” Brodeur said. “Right now he’s not able to get with the (free agents from other teams). He knows what’s going on. He’s the only one who knows how it’s going to get fixed. I don’t think our guys, that’s the problem.”

Although Zubrus has agreed to terms on a three-year deal for $9.3 million, he has yet to actually sign it. Brodeur is hoping there will be news in the coming days.

“It’s just tough that we can’t get our guys signed,” Brodeur said. “I’ve talked to Clarky a lot. He’s waiting. He wants to stay. He’s waiting for Lou. I sure after this (they’ll talk). They have no choice.”

***Brodeur said it’s “not bad” having his image on the cover of EA Sports NHL’ 14.

“It is little strange,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of feedback about it already. People are calling me about it.”

Brodeur said he had to “ask permission” from the Devils to have the Twitter campaign to win the vote.

“But my kids and my brother, and (assistant) Andrew, they’re the ones that did the whole campaign for me,” he said. “They knew the patterns how to tweet. Me, I can barely use my phone.”

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.